EPL Weekend Viewing Guide: Gameweek 7

Wow, what a weekend Gameweek 6 was. The four Champions League sides really struggled, producing a single point amongst them, and Liverpool, even benefiting from a gift goal, could not win at Anfield. (Five demerits to me for not mentioning the exploding balloon match). I doubt any 27-year olds will be assigned for the reverse fixture on March 19. In fact, you can circle that date as all of the matches we saw this past weekend will be reversed for the 19th/20th of March. I imagine we’ll get Chelsea v Man City in the Sunday 11 am match this time (west coast viewers will be happier!) while I’ll bet they give more prominence to Sunderland v Liverpool given the last two meetings. But I’m thinking too far ahead.

Let’s move back to the first matches of October! Chelsea v Arsenal at the Bridge is clearly our 4-star match of this weekend. Spurs v Villa should be very entertaining (3 stars) and the second London derby may provide some end-to-end action too. We have another early season 6-pointer in the early kickoff match, which will be aired on ESPN Deportes & espn3.com, but not on ESPN2 (fishing shows), and we’ll give it the appropriate 1-star. Enjoy your fix, and we’ll be back in 2 weeks after the international break.

**** Must-see. Cancel all other activities. Do not even DVR as even in America you might hear the score! *** Strong match; worth watching live; DVR a must if you can’t see live ** Flip through quickly to see the goals, red cards, injuries, and perhaps watch the last 5 minutes + injury time if close * Only if you’re a die-hard

***Sunderland v Man Utd, 10 am, ESPN2 & espn3.com
Steve Bruce looks forward to this match and Sunderland look comfortably mid-table. Not all is right for Sir Alex’s boys, especially away from Old Trafford, where they have now conceded 7, though the kids looked good Wednesday night in Spain.

**Birmingham v Everton, 10 am foxsoccer.tv & 12 noon (delayed) FSC & 2 pm (delayed) FSE
These two played two draws last season. Birmingham also look comfortably mid-table, while Everton need to pretend it’s April and not October. Like Man City & Villa, Birmingham have only conceded 1 at home.

*Stoke v Blackburn, 10 am foxsoccer.tv & 4 pm (delayed) FS+

**West Brom v Bolton, 10 am foxsoccer.tv & Sunday 10:30 am (delayed) FS+
Not many sides will score 3 at the Emirates (after missing a penalty too!). Bolton had a great game plan against United and deserved their draw. Had Elmander been able to convert, Bolton might have taken all 3 points.

Sunday, October 3 *** Man City v Newcastle, 8:30 am, FS+ & foxsoccer.tv
Newcastle have come back up all pistons firing, but City simply do not concede goals. They have not yet put together the brilliant offensive attack we thought we might get (losing Bellamy took away some of their flair), but they are playing like one of the better Italian sides.

**** Chelsea v Arsenal, 11 am, FSC
No away side has scored at the Bridge, and Chelsea has only allowed the late consolation Scott Parker goal and Tevez’s brilliant finish Saturday this season. You all will remember last season, when Chelsea simply man-handled the lightweights from North London, easily winning both matches without coming close to allowing a Gunner goal. Is Arsenal strong enough to challenge this year? From what we saw at the Emirates against West Brom: no.

ESPN, Inc.’s policy regarding Monday night EPL matches not involving the “big clubs” during September – December appears to be the following: ESPN3.com (in English, using the PLP international feed straight through) and ESPN Deportes (in Spanish, “international style” with announcers not appearing on camera) ONLY.

No EPL telecast on ESPN2 on Mondays during September-December because the ESPN has to air additional talk shows to build up to Monday Night NFL Football and the regularly-scheduled talk shows on ESPN have to be moved to ESPN2, where they draw twice to 3 times the number of TV viewers compared to a mid-table or “basement” EPL match.

“though the kids [Manchester United] looked good Wednesday night in Spain”
— There is no way you watched that game. It was a horrible football game that United were lucky to get a point, let alone win. Snooze-fest was more like it.

You don’t have to make things sound better and four stars for the Sunderland game is a bit high. 2-3 is much better. Surely the Chelsea/Arsenal game should be higher than United’s game, no?

Keep up the good work and I always enjoy reading these viewing guides!

Glad to see ESPN2 switched the fixture they were going to telecast. I am not a fan of the ESPN3 stream. It is clearly second class compared to the Foxsoccer.tv stream.

I still do not understand why Foxsoccer.tv does not keep the score and time permanently on the screen for UEFA Champions League & Carling Cup matches. It is hard to keep up with the match without knowing the time & score.

Does anyone know how to watch multiple games at the same time on Foxsoccer.tv? For MLB.TV & NBA League Pass Broadband, you can watch up to 4 games simultaneously. Those two services are very easy to navigate. I find that Foxsoccer.tv isn’t as easy as those two. That being said, Foxsoccer.tv has been fantastic. It has been worth the money price.

Ramesh, you can open up different windows/tabs on your browser for FoxSoccer.tv and watch several games all at once. But right now, there’s nothing official in terms of a dashboard where you can see all games in one browser screen.

Well, the EPL works with their main broadcast partners to pick television games. Sky is the primary broadcaster, and this weekend is a huge weekend for them as they have the Ryder Cup. Sky wasn’t going to pass up on Chelsea v Arsenal, but they told the EPL they didn’t want a tea-time (5:30 pm) match Saturday, hence there isn’t one. Sometimes they ask for tea time matches, but they get overruled by the local police, who beg the EPL to make certain derbies have the early kick-offs, to avoid allowing the supporters too much time in pubs, etc.

DirecTV is offering a free Fox Soccer Plus Trial October 2-8. I guess if you end up ordering it during October, you get one month free. I’ve been undecided about subscribing because $14.99 is a lot for one channel, but I will check it out this weekend. The Man City vs. Newcastle match could be interesting.